Prelude: 4 entries ago I mentioned I had just returned to the Philippines,from Guinea in West-Central Africa, and then began meandering into a description of a bout of morphine withdrawal and a current update of my lovelife.
It was actually a year ago that I received an email from 1 of my cousins asking if I felt like making some fast money. Now, if you have read enough of my entries you will understand the thoughts such a question might produce. I have a cousin in the US "Witness Protection Program [sic]" (Shlomo Dwek)for making fast cash, have a 2nd doing "Life" in a US Prison (Harold Ackerman) for doin that in a different manner and I myself served 3 years in a US prison for trying to do the same. I am at a point in myife where I am more than secure financially and yet, in my culture family is everything and it is quite difficult to refuse even a muted appeal. I decided to listen to what my cousin had to say.
My cousin began by talking about the Morroccan branch of our family. My father is a "Syrian Jew" (or was since he passed away about a decade ago). The term "Syrian" is a bit misleading though. It covers Lebanon, Jordan, the "Palestinian Territories" as well as pre-Statehood Israel. As I have said quite often, my ancestral home is in the city of Hebron in the so-called "West Bank" ("Palestinian Territory"). Like many Jewish families who never left the region (known as "Mizrachi" Jews, or, "Eastern" Jews), ours inter-married very heavily with "Sephardi" Jews.
The word "Sephardi," or as it is usally said in English,"Sephardic," means "Spanish" and relates to the Jews exiled from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and the Baleric Islands (big up to "Ibiza"). In 1492 CE/AD the Spanish Monarchy, at the behest of the Spanish Inquisition, ordered all Jews who refused to convert to Catholicism out of Spain (though its dependancies and Portugal came a few years later). A flood of Sephardi Jews made their way into North Africa and the Ottoman Empire. My mum's family made their way from Spain into the northwest corner of the Ottoman Empire, a small Eastern European region known as Bessarabia, a land now comprising the eastern portion of Moldova, an independant nation next to Rumania.
A portion of my father's family migrated into Morrocco, just a hop from Spain, where a branch remained, and the rest returned to our homeland and heavily intermarried with those in Hebron. Of the Morroccan branch I have a cousin, Shlomo Ben Ami, who went into politics with the Labor Party and eventually became the Foreign Minister of Israel (for Americans that would be "Secretary of State"). Of course that was decades ago and so my cousin has looked for other ways in which to butter his bread. All nations have key industries that they tend to concentrate on and in Israel one of those areas of expertise is Defence and Counter Terrorism. As a man with contacts at the highest level of government, my cousin naturally gravitated towards Defence and Security Consulting.
Cousin Shlomo's business dealings led him into a consortium who hoped to use such consultancy as a way in which to more easily wrangle very valuable timber and mining concessions in 4 West African Nations. 1 of those 4 nations was Guinea. Guinea is a tiny animist and Christian Nation sandwiched between mostly Muslim Nations. This works towards the Israeli advantage geopolitically. At the end of 2008 two officers in the Guinean Army launched a bloody coup and seized power, instability breeds great business opportunities.
The 2 officers, Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara and Col.Sekouba Konate formed a junta comprised mostly of their loyalist clique from their former army installation, Camp Alpha Yaya Diallo in the capitol city, Conakry. Almost from get the junta wasn't well received abroad and with few options the nation became, according to some, a narco-state since it became a major transhipment point for cocaine being brought into Western Europe. Within a year this tiny shithole became a Laundering centre as well.
By 2009 with Sanctions looming the junta desperately tried to consolidate its hold over the nation (Sanctions almost always spark insurgency) as well as wanting to up its democracy quotient if at all possible. The Israeli consortium was basically only concerned with siphoning off quick profits via tenders in mining and logging as I mentioned. Extending the shelf life of the junta would allow longer siphoning, enter my cousin.
By the time I received that Email in November of 2009 my cousin had been involved for 3 months. He had contracted through his consultancy to train the junta's civil service in liberally democratic statecraft. He was next trying to put together a military package as well. I was asked to undertake very basic Infantry and Internal Security Modules at the Brigade Level, on an 8 month contract. By late December that package coallesced and I began making plans to travel home to Israel where I would cram for a month and then head into Guinea.
By the end of Janurary the Israeli Government had learned of the operation and had it targetted for running afoul of Military Export Regs. My genius of a cousin had only received authourisation to take a reading of the Guineans' needs and to talk in very general terms about what he could provide. He wasn't even permitted to price it, much less ink contracts. Luckily my involvement didn't even warrant a subpoena.
By April of this year things had changed. Back in December of 2009 as I began preparing my involvement a disgrunteled Army Junior Officer, Aboubakar Sidiki "Toumba" Diakite took his 9MM and put a bullet in the back of Camara's head, causing Camara to flee to Burkina Faso, a neighbouring nation. The issue that caused it was a massacre of women and children in the capitol's football stadium that had taken place in September (just as my cousin became involved).
The pendulun began swinging away from the junta and towards a man named Alpha Conde. Conde hates Israel because of what he perceived as our support of the junta. He began running around talking about Israeli Mercenaries but was soon "straightened out." After Conde calmed down the Israeli Government approved a modified package to safeguard a trasitional phase towards non-military rule. My job was still the same but with different personnel. The political facet was applied across the board and included equal attention to Conde's people.
In the end, after nearly dissolving into genocide the transition took place. As I was flying out of the country there were etnic flareups all over the city but things seem to have calmed down with Conde now on top.
Personally I wasn't too happy there, West Africa isn't my cup of tea. I had spent time in other regional nations but nothing there appeals to me, though Senegal has great seafood. I had to rely on a cousin to bring me fentanyl patches without which I would have been up shit's creek as the saying goes. A tonne of cannabis and nearly pure coke but neither floats my proverbial boat.
Ahhh, the character count...(Edited for spelling)
So of course that was it, stuck in my head. I ended up scoring utter crap. I'm really disappointed with myself. Am i that weak ? that as soon as someone calls i have to get it ? No is such a small word but my god it's a very hard word to say ![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
